1. Field
The invention relates to mechanisms to be used with shovels for handling materials such as soil, sand and snow, and effective for providing mechanical assistance for reducing back stress and strain.
2. State of the Art
Spades, shovels and snow scoops have long been used for manipulating soil, sand or snow, and although effective, are notorious for imposing possible harmful strains on the user's spinal joints and/or back muscles. Such tools commonly have a load-carrying scoop located at the end of an elongated handle, where the handle is normally designed to be gripped by the user at spacings from the load and the loaded scoop is then laterally spaced from the user's feet. This means during use, the user's overall body typically will be curved or bent at the legs and waist to maintain a balanced or stable center of gravity. Lifting the loaded scoop vertically thus might strain and/or injure the user's back muscles and/or joints, particularly while the back in angled in a cantilevered manner and the loaded scoop is laterally spaced from the feet. Shovel use by those not in sound physical condition seemingly has even caused heart attacks due to the heavy effort and/or exertion of lifting the loaded shovel scoop. Thus, fatigue, soreness, and injury attendant with shovel use have been long-standing and well recognized problems.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,461,458 and 4,881,332 show modified shovel designs that include an elongated ground contacting support member pivoted to the shovel shaft near the lower hand gripping area, so that during shovel use both the shovel scoop and the free end of the support member could be rested against the ground. The user might then first lift the shovel handle upwardly to close the gap between the shovel scoop and grounded support member end, and might secondly then rock the shovel handle downwardly to drive the shovel scoop into and under the material to be shoveled, and then lastly might pull the handle rearwardly back to rotate the grounded support member while maintaining the shovel level, operable to lift the scoop and material thereon off of the ground.
However, while these devices offered improved shovel operation, neither allowed the achievement of several advantageous benefits available with the inventive mechanism as will be disclosed herein.